Climbing plants for north facing wall

19th April 2016

The builders are nearly finished! Hopefully they’ll be done by the end of next week, although there will still be a long way for us to go after that (finishing electrics, plumbing and plastering, windows to front of house, fitting kitchen, painting and decorating). But on a lovely sunny afternoon like this, it means it’s no longer premature of me to be thinking about planting things in the front garden. Planting is something I want to get started asap, because obviously plants take a while to get going, and I’m impatient for results. I really think that plants at the front of the house are the best way to create curb appeal.

The roses really make it special, don’t they! Want the same effect but for shade…

Photo source unknown

My front garden is soon to be my front drive, as we’re making it possible to park the car there so we can reclaim some of the back garden. This means that it will have even less space for plants, but my plan is to put them in the following places:

Window boxes

A climber going up the corner of the house (softening the corner and hiding some new pipes from the boiler), eventually running above the kitchen window too

Something tall in a feature pot on the left of the front door (outside a little window in the hallway)

Hopefully a hedge (instead of the wall) separating the parking space from the pavement

There’s a space which could be a planting bed on the right of the front gate. I’m guessing it’s about 60cm wide by 1.5m long (2 feet by 5 feet). The added bonus is that planting something there will screen the bins.

The flowers show where I plan to plant things.

In addition to lack of space, the other challenge is that the area is north facing and mostly in full shade. Some parts of it receive partial shade. These are tricky conditions because I want to see flowers! And flowers generally like full sun, not shady north-facing places.

So my ideal wishlist is:

Evergreen plants

Plants which have attractive flowers

Plants which smell strongly (and nice!) – wouldn’t that make such a lovely welcome?

Nothing which has invasive roots (they might be closer to our neighbours’ house than my house)

Things which will do fine in shade

Things which don’t need too much shelter

As always, not asking for much then!

When researching plants, I find the RHS plant selector quite useful, although sometimes it does include some apparently unsuitable results eg: you ask it for things which are interesting in winter, and it includes things which flower in summer. So the other thing I do is Google (eg: “climbing plant north facing”) and then also check what the RHS site says about it.

I’m going to start with climbing plants, and probably cover the others in future posts. Here’s what I’ve found (they are all evergreen and can take full shade apart from a couple which are “partial shade”, which I’ve pointed out):

“personally I would not wish on anyone the so-called evergreen honeysuckles such as Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’ (which can flower from June until the frosts), unless they have a large garden and can let them perform unchecked. Many a small-garden owner is seduced by the idea of scented evergreen honeysuckle – only to find the reality is that they have to sit under a cascade of falling leaves all summer. The drastic pruning that is needed to keep some sort of control means that they have to look at an ugly tangle of brown stems for part of the year, and the honeysuckle then does not flower until October – by which time the evenings are so cool that it barely smells.”

Pileostegia viburnoides (Climbing hydrangea)

My favourites are the 1st one (Lapageria rosea) because of its pink, tropical looking flowers, and the last one (Pileostegia viburnoides) because it sounds really low maintenance and easy to grow. Maybe I’ll start with the 1st one, and if the location turns out to be too exposed, move on to the last one. In future I’d also like to try mixing in something like a clematis, which I can then afford to be deciduous (removing the “evergreen” requirement opens up the options a lot) and will flower when the “main” climber is not flowering. I’ll let you know how I get on!

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About Me

Hi, welcome to my home-obsessed blog (with a dash of thriftiness). I LOVE anything pretty and to do with houses! Especially if it's also useful, a bargain, child-proof, cat-proof and low maintenance.
Not asking for much then :)